Change Urged To Close Hole In Gun Control

Lawmakers Seek Changes To Tighten Gun-control Law

June 25, 1992|By MARK PAZNIOKAS; Courant Staff Writer

A loophole in a law requiring that gun buyers be checked for criminal records has allowed 80 convicted felons to buy guns since the law took effect in 1990, gun-control advocates in the General Assembly said Wednesday.

At a press conference outlining their gun-control proposals, the legislators proposed amendments that would end the exception, which is for hunters, and ban the sale of assault weapons and Saturday night specials.

The ban on assault weapons would affect the Sporter, a semiautomatic rifle manufactured by Colt's, a company in which the state has invested. Company officials say the gun should not be categorized as an assault weapon.

The legislators will attempt to attach the amendments to four bills that Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. has sent to the House of Representatives for consideration Monday during a special session on gun control.

Weicker's bills, most of which stiffen criminal penalties for minors who use guns or adults who supply them to people under age 21, will be the subject of a public hearing tonight at 6 in Room 2C of the Legislative Office Building.

Also on the agenda is a proposal by Senate President Pro Tem John B. Larson, D-East Hartford, to create a grant program for police departments in the state's largest cities.

Larson has revised his proposal substantially since announcing it Friday at the Hartford Police Department.

Instead of the state's five largest cities, the top eight would now be eligible for the grants. They are Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, Stamford, Waterbury, New Britain, Norwalk and Danbury.

The original proposal directed the state to sell its off-track-betting facilities and use the money for law enforcement grants for one year. The revised plan would create a three-year program.

The gun-control measures announced Wednesday were expected. All three have been proposed and defeated in previous sessions of the General Assembly, but the legislators said they believe the special session will be different.

"This is an issue that's finally hit critical mass," said Sen. George Jepsen, D-Stamford. "I think the public is just sick and tired of the proliferation of guns on the streets, and they are saying enough is enough."

"I think that with the glare of publicity and the public focus that comes with a special session, that we're going to be able to bring these issues up, put them in the forefront and hold legislators accountable," he said.

Weicker called the special session after a 6-year-old New Haven boy was shot in the head as he rode home from kindergarten on a school bus. The boy is in fair condition at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Three teenagers have been charged in the shooting.

The amendments are opposed by the National Rifle Association. Susan Baldyga Misiora, the group's Connecticut liaison, said the state should control criminals, not firearms.

"Let's put the emphasis on the bad guys," she said. "If it requires changing the criminal justice system, we are willing to help."

The exception the legislators wish to end is an exemption for licensed hunters in the two-week waiting period required to purchase long guns. An older law requiring a similar waiting period for handguns has no such exemption.

The waiting period is intended to allow a check for records of felonies. Dealers are prohibited from selling guns to convicted felons.

But Rep. James O'Rourke, D-Cromwell, said that authorities have discovered that 80 felons have obtained guns because they were able to show valid hunting licenses and avoid the waiting period.

Misiora said the waiting period would be "an unnecessary burden on hunters and target shooters. We're talking about long guns rarely used in crimes."

Jack Moore, a spokesman for the Connecticut Sportsmen's Alliance, said his group of hunters also is opposed.

"To me, the imposition of a two-week waiting period just doesn't do any good and is a slap in the face to people who are otherwise law-abiding," Moore said